


making new clichés on our own

by tamanone



Series: memoirs [2]
Category: Joker Game (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Feelings, M/M, Rated T for language, Set in the 1980s, Wedding Rings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-05 12:09:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18365735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tamanone/pseuds/tamanone
Summary: Just how much money did you spend on this, he wants to say.You idiot, you shouldn’t have, is another thought that he wants to voice. Yet all those words die in his throat once he gazes up at Kaminaga, because there’s a small, nervous smile on his lips, and his eyes look like they’re glimmering.or: a pair of rings, and then some.written for Memoir: A Joker Game Event week 2





	making new clichés on our own

**Author's Note:**

> another word vomit to destress in the middle of finals period, except this time i'm even less sorry about it than i was last week. one day i will stop writing about old men kamihata being in love but today is not that day.
> 
> i felt bad about writing/posting the fics in this au not in a chronological order until i remember that joker game's episodes were also, in fact, not chronological. so this actually falls very in line with the series itself. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> also, no beta this time. we crash and burn publicly like men.
> 
> title taken from "for him." by troye sivan (another hs!au kamihata theme song)

Hatano intends to simply leave the documents in Kaminaga’s office and go about his business, however it hits him just as he sets the envelop down on the desk that in a matter of days, he’s going to be moving out of this place. This building, which he has lived in for far longer than his own familial home, even discounting the months and years in between where he’s not around due to missions. This building, the one constant in his whirlwind of a life. This building, the closest thing he ever considered to be a home.

He begins to look around, taking in every detail in the room. From the storage lockers, to the two big windows, and finally back to the desk. This office had once belong to Lt. Col. Yuuki, it had belong to Kaminaga for the last twenty years, and by next week, it will belong to their subordinates.

( _By next week, he will be a married man_ , his mind adds, the treacherous thing.)

Amidst his walk down memory lane, he hears someone enters. Kaminaga doesn’t greet him with words, instead simply touching him on the wrist before reaching downwards to lace their fingers together. If it was anyone else, Hatano would have slapped their hand away, but he knows it’s Kaminaga from the moment the other entered the room, so attuned to the sound of his footsteps from knowing each other for so long. Hatano turns around and squeeze his hands once, returning the nonverbal greeting.

“I’ve been looking for you,” he says, “the military sent you and Hara some more papers to sign.”

Kaminaga grimaces, which is a sentiment that Hatano wholeheartedly shares. He reacted exactly the same way when he received the envelope earlier this morning. “Yeah, sorry, I was out taking care of some stuff.”

The last words makes Hatano raises his eyebrows. “What stuff? You don’t have anything on your schedule today. I would know, I’m your unofficial secretary.”

“It wasn’t an agency business.” Kaminaga’s not meeting his eyes now, and it just makes him raise his eyebrows higher.

“Then, what...?”

Kaminaga brings their interlaced hands up to their waist before unfurling them. He’s holding something in his other hand, Hatano finally notices, fingers curling around the item and completely obscuring it from sight. Then Kaminaga places that something in Hatano’s hand, and from touch alone Hatano discerns that it’s small and made of velvet and _— oh_.

Hatano can already guess what’s inside without even having to see it, but opens it anyway for good measure.

And sure enough, a pair of rings stares back at him, the pristine metal glinting from the afternoon sunlight that filters into the room.

Hatano is rendered speechless, which is something that happen much more frequently than he’d like, when it comes to Kaminaga. All he can do is stare helplessly; at the rings, then at Kaminaga, then at the rings again.

“I didn’t know if you’d like a diamond on it, so instead I settled for a plain band made of a rarer metal.”

That throws Hatano off even more, who immediately goes to take a closer look at the rings.

 _This is —_ “Platinum?”

 _Just how much money did you spend on this_ , he wants to say. _You idiot, you shouldn’t have_ , is another thought that he wants to voice. Yet all those words die in his throat once he gazes up at Kaminaga, because there’s a small, nervous smile on his lips, and his eyes look like they’re glimmering. (And this might just be his imagination running rampant, but Kaminaga looks like he’d give Hatano the world, if he asks.)

“It’s beautiful, thank you.” Come his response after he swallows down the lump in his throat and manages to find his voice again.

“Ah, that’s good to hear,” the smile on Kaminaga’s face transform into one of of relief, “Hara assisted me with this whole thing.”

“Oh, you guys had some successor-predecessor bonding time?” Hatano immediately latches onto the slight tangent, a teasing grin already beginning to take shape on his face, “Did anyone think you two are the ones getting married?”

Kaminaga looks so affronted by the notion, like Hatano doesn’t know he still was not above sleeping with university students up until he was well in his forties, that it’s almost funny.

“We had to act like she’s my daughter and she’s helping me pick out rings for my girlfriend slash her soon-to-be-stepmother. It was really weird.” He grumbles out. Hatano’s immediate reaction is to snort out a laugh.

“And people bought it?”

“Apparently,” Kaminaga begins to join in on the laugh, finally conceding to the sheer ridiculousness of the whole scenario, “well, she does reminded me of my mother.”

There’s still mirth in the corners of Hatano’s eyes and lips, but his laughter did die down after that last sentence. _His mother... and that usage of past tense..._

“Is that so?” He replies tenderly, mindful of the possibly sensitive nature of the situation.

Kaminaga nods, “Petite women with presence the size of a giant,” he says solemnly, “Same smile, too, now that I think about it.”

There’s a faint wistful and fond lilt to his voice when he’s talking about his mother, Hatano realizes. He makes an affirmative noise, waiting to see if Kaminaga will elaborate more. But it never comes, and Hatano doesn’t prod. Hatano doesn’t reply with a secret of his own (mostly because he barely has any wistful and fond memories about his family to share,) and Kaminaga doesn’t prompt. Because these are the kinds of thing that you don’t demand, but instead given whenever the owner see fit; a show of trust, more than anything. Hatano will take any sliver of information that Kaminaga is willing to give him, at any time; and he’ll tell Kaminaga things from his past too, in his own time.

“You don’t have to wear it immediately, if you don’t want the underlings to know. We can just save it for the wedding.” Kaminaga remarks after Hatano starts ogling the rings again.

Hatano shakes his head. “It’s okay,” he says, splaying his left hand atop of Kaminaga’s own, while his right holds out the velvet box. “We also kind of owe it to Sakai for planting the idea in our heads.”

 

The ring turns out to be a very, very good fit on Hatano’s finger.

“Should I be unsettled by the fact that you knew exactly the circumference of my ring finger?”

“I didn’t _know_ ,” Kaminaga downright whines, a very jarring thing coming from a sixty-something year old spymaster, “I just took a guess and hoped for the best.”

“There’s no way you ‘just took a guess’—” Hatano stops his mocking when something clicks in his mind. “Wait. That’s why you did that— that thing. Yesterday.”

A beat. “What thing?” Kaminaga asks, confused expression seemingly genuine if not for the fact that Hatano has known him for far too long to not know when he’s playing dumb.

“That super weird hand-holding and comparing hand sizes stuff.” Hatano sneers.

Kaminaga soldiers on, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Hatano rolls his eyes, exasperated but undeniably fond as well, “Whatever, just give me your hand.”

Kaminaga does, and Hatano slips his ring on without further preamble.

When Kaminaga got on his knees and asked Hatano to marry him a few days ago, the thought of having matching rings admittedly never crosses his mind. It would raise questions from outsiders, from close-minded neighbors who don’t even know the first thing about them. The pragmatic in him had deemed it more trouble than it's worth, yet now he can’t stop himself from marvelling at it. The unblemished rings are a stark contrast to their old, weathered hands, but they look like they belong there nevertheless.

Kaminaga raises their hands to his lips, places a kiss on Hatano’s ring, and pulls him into a hug, where Hatano can feel Kaminaga giving him a kiss on the forehead next. He feels so, so warm all of a sudden, but he has half a suspicion that it’s not only because there’s a whole other body surrounding his own. In his desperate attempt to not melt and let himself get swept away, he remembers the whole reason he’s in Kaminaga’s office to begin with.

“We should go back to working, those documents aren’t going to sign themselves.” he mumbles against Kaminaga’s collarbone.

The other lets out a hum, “5 more minutes.”

“No,” Hatano manually peels Kaminaga’s arms off his body, welcoming the breathing room, “I want them sent back to the army today.”

 

Sakai lets out a very audible gasp not even five seconds after the two of them enter the dining room as dinner time rolls around. As his supervisor and also senior, Hatano supposes he shouldn’t be this surprised, but he still can’t help but feel slightly creeped out by how he zeroed in on their rings so quickly.

“I thought you guys said you weren’t getting married!”

“This was, uh, a very recent development.” Kaminaga takes the initiative to answer after noticing the way Hatano had stiffened next to him, his hand coming to seek one of Hatano’s own, proffering a bit of comfort and strength.

Hatano watches Sakai narrows his eyes and subconsciously tightens his hold on Kaminaga’s hand. _Had they not wanted them to get married after all?_ Not like that would change their decision, no, but as much as Hatano hates to admit it, he does think of these — not kids, exactly, as even the youngest one is about to turn forty this year, but well, _kids_ as family, to some extent, since he and Kaminaga (and Tazaki, and Fukumoto, but mostly the two of them) had raised them to be the spies that they are today; and subsequently that means he also does care about their opinions, to some extent.

But then Sakai’s frown turns into a smirk, and he says, “Everyone who betted against me and Shimizu, I expect your payment by tomorrow night at the latest.”

_Say what now?_

Groans erupt from several people at once, Nifuji even goes as far as shouting “You cheated, asshole. We know you fucking did.”

Both Hatano and Kaminaga turn to look at each other, then turn to look at Shimizu, who’s already carrying out a bottle of champagne that he doesn’t even remember them having. The smile on her face is one that exudes innocent joy, but he’s known her long enough to be able to detect the underlying smugness.

“Congratulation on the engagement, sir!”

 

(“So what exactly were you all betting on?”

Hara takes her eyes off of the men, who for some reason has started an arm-wrestling match, “If you two are ever going to officially get together.”

 _Oh._ “Which side were you on?”

The new head of the agency doesn’t exactly scoff, but it’s a close enough thing. “Neither, I have better things to do than bet about my superiors’ love lives.”

Hatano doesn’t exactly beam at her like a proud parent, but it’s a close enough thing. “And when did you guys make this bet?”

Hara’s smile is unreadable when she replies,

“Our second year here.”)

**Author's Note:**

> you guys: if your bias is kaminaga why do you keep writing in hatano's pov  
> me, crying: i don't know it just happens
> 
> some clarifications, i guess:  
> \- "he still was not above sleeping with university students up until he was well in his forties" = similar amount of age difference (kaminaga in his 60s & hara in her 40s vs kaminaga in his 40s & uni students in their early 20s), but as we can see the reason for him finding hatano's words offensive was bc hara reminds him of his mother + he thinks of the underlings as his kids.  
> \- “We also kind of owe it to Sakai for planting the idea in our heads”, “You cheated, asshole. We know you fucking did.” = referring to the same thing. basically sakai & shimizu sort of conditioned kamihata into thinking about marriage, partly because they want to win the bet, but mostly because they want these two to have a happy ending. does this undermine/cheapen their marriage? i don't think so, because as expressed in the fics kamihata have had feelings for each other for decades, it just never crossed their minds that they could _be together_ (because the two of them share one brain cell).
> 
> lastly: here's my [twitter](https://twitter.com/kaminagasama), [cc](https://curiouscat.me/tamanone), and [tumblr](http://tamanone.tumblr.com/).


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